THOMAS HUTCHINSON 



Susanna, the wife, and fourteen children, William 

 made his way across the Atlantic to Boston, where he 

 proceeded to build a comfortable house on the site 

 where now stands the Old Corner Bookstore. There, 

 however, he was not destined long to dwell. The 

 Antinomian heresy soon roused such fierce disputes as 

 to threaten the very existence of the colony, and Mrs. 

 Hutchinson, as the leading agitator, was tried for sedi- 

 tion and banished. Early in 1638 the family fled to 

 the Narragansett country, where at first they were fain 

 to seek shelter in a cave. But presently Mr. Hutchin- 

 son, with William Coddington and a few faithful fol- 

 lowers, bought the island of Aquednek from the 

 Indians for forty fathoms of white wampum, and 

 forthwith the building of the towns of Portsmouth 

 and Newport went on briskly. In 1642, when Mr. 

 Hutchinson died, the outlook for the little colony was 

 dubious. The New England Confederacy was about 

 to be formed, and there were strong hints that the 

 Rhode Island settlements, if they would share in its 

 advantages, must put themselves under the jurisdic- 

 tion either of Massachusetts or of Plymouth. Absurd 

 and horrible tales were told about Mrs. Hutchinson, 

 and found many believers. There were some who 

 suspected her of being a paramour of Satan, and per- 

 haps the fear of arrest on a charge of witchcraft may 

 have had something to do with her next move. At all 

 events, soon after her husband's death, the poor woman, 

 with most of her children and a few friends, removed 

 to a place since known as Pelham, a few miles west of 

 Stamford and within the tolerant jurisdiction of the 

 New Netherlands. There in the course of the follow- 

 ing year they were all cruelly murdered by Indians, 



